\u201c\u2026I should have gone into the interior and the rude natives would have turned me into a god and tried to offer me their wives.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWhy would the natives be rude?\u201d said Barney.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cNot that sort of rude, you idiot, it means \u2013 it means – well it\u2019s the sort of thing natives are. It\u2019s what all the explorers call them.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n There was more banter about native bearers carrying their treasure back; about being turned into a sacrifice and eaten; about keeping the natives at bay.<\/p>\n Problematic? I began to wish I could just hang in there and enjoy the ride, knowing that the book was published more than 50 years ago, acknowledging that it\u2019s an artefact from another time. But when you start to notice this stuff, it really stares you in the face. And having just read Bernardine Evaristo\u2019s Girl, Woman, Other<\/em>, it hits you in the guts, too. Imagine if in 1965, I was a little British girl reading this story, and I was black\u2026<\/p>\n Imagine I was a little girl.<\/p>\n \u201cGirls!\u201d said Simon cheerfully.<\/em><\/p>\n Girls, we are to understand, are natural vibe-sucks. Poor Jane is so girly, and that\u2019s variously boring, laughable, pitiable, endearing, annoying. She\u2019s anxious and conscientious; squeamish (even having her brother tease<\/em> her about being sea-sick makes her feel sea-sick); she\u2019s a goody-goody, wanting to play by the rules and anxious when her more adventurous brothers break them; she gets scared; she fusses and worries about dirt.<\/p>\n \u201cSimon!\u201d said Jane, gazing at him in horror. \u201cYou\u2019re filthy!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWell, isn\u2019t that just like a girl\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n And:<\/p>\n She meant well, after all<\/em>.<\/p>\n I know Over Sea, Under Stone<\/em> is a landmark in British children\u2019s fantasy, the first in The Dark is Rising<\/em> sequence. And I know that like the fantasy novels I most enjoyed as a child, it\u2019s got a real inner seriousness, a moral dimension, letting children know that they too can be part of a great, eternal battle between good and evil in this world. It\u2019s lively and well-written; adventurous and imaginative, a fascinating mixture of a familiar modern world that has a powerful mythic dimension pulsing just beneath, waiting to surface\u2026<\/p>\n I think about little girls, and black kids. I accept that Cooper is a writer of her time. I wonder if I am turning into a prig. I ponder political correctness, and censorship. What if the Empire builder fantasies – well outdated even at the time; what had those boys been reading?\u00a0 –\u00a0 were removed? I didn\u2019t finish the book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve been inspired by Kate Constable\u2019s annual book accounting (with pie charts! heaven!) to be diligent about recording my reading in 2022. I’m off to a good start, but I am wondering if I should add a category; ‘Started, not … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/over-sea-1.jpg\")
<\/a> I only vaguely remembered reading it and I couldn\u2019t actually recall whether I\u2019d enjoyed it or not but I started it with high hopes. The beginning, with the three Drew children arriving in Cornwall to stay at the Grey House with the eccentric, enigmatic Uncle Merry, was promising. I settled in for the ride. My armchair;\u00a0 a cup of tea; rain lashing on the windows outside. Me, secure in Cooper’s classic storytelling,\u00a0 anticipating that\u00a0 immersive mythic fantasy experience.
\nThe rain fell. I read on.
\nJane, Barney and Simon started to explore the old house.
\nYes! An old house, with hidden rooms, secret passages, attics stuffed with junk and treasure; my favourite things!
\nSimon started to play at being an explorer. He said that if he\u2019d been one:<\/p>\n
\nI don\u2019t have any answers.<\/p>\n